


An Office Asshole and an Obnoxious Teen

by awigglycultist



Series: Brothers [1]
Category: Hatchetfield Universe - Team StarKid, The guy who didn't like musicals
Genre: Angst, Gen, HCB's name is Ned, Hurt/Comfort, Small spoilers for episode 2 of Nightmare Time, Ted and HCB are brothers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29524770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awigglycultist/pseuds/awigglycultist
Summary: Ted and his little brother fight for the first time in their lives, and they're not doing great at handling it.
Relationships: Grace Chastity & Hot Chocolate Boy, Hot Chocolate Boy & Emma Perkins, Hot Chocolate Boy & Paul Matthews, Hot Chocolate Boy & Ted Spankoffski, Tom Houston & Ted Spankoffski
Series: Brothers [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2169069
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	An Office Asshole and an Obnoxious Teen

**Author's Note:**

> This of course based on the theory that Ted and HCB are brothers, which I have become utterly obsessed with and cannot stop thinking about. If fact I couldn't thinking about to the point where I actually wrote a fic the ideas jumping around in my head. Anyway, enjoy!

"You're so obnoxious!" 

"Well you're an asshole!" 

Ted and Ned Spankoffisk were fighting. And the two brothers never fought. Sure they called each other names but it was out of good fun and never meant to hurt. They also bickered and argued, but they didn't _fight._ They hardly even raised their voices up at each other. However now they were fighting, yelling, throwing whatever insults they could think of at one another, with the intent to hurt, and they couldn't even remember what started it. 

"Oh I'm an asshole!? Do you even realize everything I've done for you!? I work my ass off every day! And it's for you! You know I couldn't give less of a shit about myself! I give you everything you want! I've taken care of you your entire life!"

That actually was kind of the biggest reason the two didn't fight. Ted took care of Ned almost his entire life. Just a few years after Ned was born their parents had decided to just hand off the kid to Ted and leave them. They boys didn't really have any family, with their parents abandoning them and them not really knowing anyone else in the family. 

They had friends though, but not very many. Ned's best friend was Grace Chastity, a nerdy prude and schoolmate of his. He also knew Alice Woodward, but she wasn't exactly a friend. More so very strong acquaintance, they knew each other through school, and Ted being co-workers with her dad. The two teens had been forced to hang out a few times, they were okay with it, they were fine with each other, maybe they would be friends if it weren't for the fact that Alice and Grace seemed to hate each other so much. 

Ted meanwhile had his coworkers, Bill, Charlotte and Paul, and also Paul's girlfriend and local crabby barista at Beanies, Emma. Paul was Ted's best friend, but Ted wasn't Paul's best friend and it was pretty obvious. Charlotte wasn't just a friend, she was a lover, but she still had a horrible husband that kept the two from ever really being together, Ted also isn't the only man Charlotte had affairs with. Ted does care about her, he wishes she'd get away from that piece of shit excuse of a husband Sam, but Charlotte doesn't care about Ted in the same way at all. 

Bill, well Bill was there, the two were really only friends due to working together and Paul and Charlotte being their mutual friends, but he was nice, Ted had even babysat Bill's daughter Alice a couple of times (he was always the last option). Emma and him hardly ever talked, really just on the occasion he was at Beanies. None of them were exactly super caring towards Ted, but it's not like Ted cared about any of them either, nope not at all, definitely not. 

So the brothers mostly just had each other, and so they cared about, and loved each other, quite a lot. They would easily forgive each other and always knew how to talk things out, which meant they never really fought. Except for now. 

"GAH! Taking care of someone doesn't mean you can't still be a bastard!" 

"You unappreciative little brat! Ya know what, sometimes I understand why our parents left us because of you!" 

The moment words fell from his mouth Ted slapped his hand over his mouth and his eyes widened with shock and horror at his own words. Ned's eyes widened too and his mouth slowly fell open a bit. The two were quiet. Ned's eyes started to turn glossy and his face red. Ted finally broke the silence as he slowly let his hand fall back down to his side. 

"Ned I- I'm sorry-" 

"Shut up."

Another moment of silence. 

"I didn't mean-" 

_"I said shut up."_

Tears began to lightly fall down Ned's face, he turned his head in hopes Ted wouldn't see. Ted slowly and carefully attempted to put his hand on the younger ones shoulder, only for it to, unsurprisingly, be slapped away. Without another beat Ned ran off to his bedroom, only to quickly return with a jacket on and his wallet and keys in his hand.

"Uh.....where ya off to?" Ted asked only for no response. Not even back talk like 'none of your business' no, instead his brother was giving him the silent treatment and he hated it. _He didn't really need an answer though, he knew that Ned was probably going to Grace's or Beanies. He decided that he should probably get out of the apartment too._

Slowly he got up, grabbed his keys and wallet and headed out the door, hoping that Ned was already far gone. He of course wasn't. So Ted slowly followed behind him trying not to disturb him while Ned picked up his pace knowing Ted wasn't too far behind him. They walked like this for a while until they finally came to an intersection where they split off, Ned to Beanies and Ted to The Birdhouse. 

~

As Ned reached Beanies he wiped his eyes, he had stopped crying by now but his face was still flushed and his eyes were red and puffy. He just hoped no one would notice and ask questions, which it was likely that no one would. However when he walked into Beanies he realized that the only three people in there were Grace, Paul and Emma, which happened to be pretty much the only people who probably _would_ take notice and ask him questions. Just his luck. 

The three all looked to the door when they heard the little bell above the it ring, and immediately Grace started talking "Hey Ned! Ned? Are you okay?" 

"Ye-yeah I'm fine!" Ned quickly replied, becoming defensive. He wanted to just turn around and walk back out the door and go to the Starbucks down the street. _Why didn't he just go to the Starbucks in the first place!? Beanies drinks are shit!_ But it was already much too late to that. 

"Hey kid! I'm guessing you want a hot chocolate? I'll start working on that right away!" Emma awkwardly cut in as she handed Grace her drink and quickly started to make a hot chocolate. She clearly had also taken notice of Ned's state but simply didn't want to deal with feelings. Ned nodded, gave her a weak smile and mumbled "thanks". 

"Ned are you sure? You look like you've been crying" Grace was talking again, more quite now, although that wasn't really needed, everyone could hear her anyway. 

"It's nothing! Teds.. Just being Ted I guess" Ned said. 

Paul gave him a concerned look and finally spoke up "hey, I'm sorry, I know Ted can be really asshole sometimes, if you need to talk-" 

"It's fine really, I'm just overreacting!" 

"Mhm" 

Paul seemed unconvinced. Emma handed Ned his hot chocolate and he quickly paid for it, said another quiet "thank you" and headed out the door in relief, only to realize that Grace was right behind him. 

She didn't say anything she simply followed and quietly sipped on her drink with a sympathetic look. After a couple minutes of walking he realized that he had no idea where he was going. He stopped, looked at Grace and sighed. 

"Where too?" he asked. 

Grace smiled back, "We can just go to my house if you'd like". 

"Yeah, that's sounds nice" 

~

Meanwhile Ted had just sat down at the bar in The Birdhouse and ordered his drink. For a while he mindlessly scrolled through his phone, trying not to think about the fight too much. God how Ted wished he could go back to before the fight when things were better. _If only he could go back to high school, where he had an unrequited crush on his (to this day) best friend and was hated by his parents, told he was never good enough for them and that his sexuality was bullshit or just phase and if he liked men that he was going hell…. okay, wow high school was shit. If only he go back to college, where he was a nerd and his one true love left him for some asshole, and he was still hated by his parents and then he suddenly had to take of a kid. Okay maybe not college ethier, maybe just like yesterday, when he was just a simple office worker living a very boring life, having an affair with a coworker who didn't actually love him, and pretty much nobody cared about him. Wow his life really sucked huh._ Ted was broken from his thoughts when a somewhat familiar looking man sat down near him. He stared at the man for a moment until the man saw him.

"Uhm sorry you look familiar, do I know you from somewhere?" Ted asked. 

The man looked Ted up and down and quickly said "nope" in return. 

"No I've definitely seen you! What's your name?" 

"Tom." 

"Oh yeah! You're like the brother or something of that crabby barista at Beanies, the one that Paul is dating?" 

"You mean Emma? Yeah I'm her brother in law, and you are?" 

"Oh I'm Ted. Paul never stops talking about Emma or showing us pictures of her and stuff and you've been in some them" 

Tom nodded and turned back to the bar to order his drink, Ted's had arrived at some point in his small conversation with Tom. A conversation Tom clearly wasn't very interested in and didn't want to go on but Ted wanted to continue anyway, because he didn't want to continue to be left alone with his thoughts. 

"So uhh… what brings you here tonight?" 

"Stuff."

"Hm, yeah" Ted tapped his hands on the table looked around the place awkwardly trying to find something to talk about, when he spotted the pool table. "Oh! Pool tables open, up for a game?" 

Tom stared at Ted for a moment, thinking about it, clearly wanting to say no, then he sighed "Yeah, okay, sure" 

Ted grabbed his drink and jumped off from the barstool, ready for a night of drinking, forgetting, and pool. 

~

By the end of the night both men were quite drunk, and it had gotten pretty late. Everything that happened earlier in the day had completely left Ted's mind. 

Ted stumbled his way out of the Uber he had gotten and to his apartment, fumbling with his keys only until he accidentally bumped the door open, _it was unlocked?_ He threw his keys on the kitchen counter and grabbed a water from the fridge. When he turned around he saw Ned asleep on the couch with the TV turned on. 

He walked over to the couch and sat down on the floor in front of it, he started to remember the fight, he watched Ned with a sad smile on his face, and then he started crying. It started off as a couple of tears and eventually turned into him, knees curled to his chest, head in his arms, full on sobbing. 

_He was asshole. He was a bastard. Everything Ned had said was true. The things he had said to Ned were horrible. Everyone he cared about hated him. Now including his own brother who he cared about the most, and who had actually cared about him. But then he messed that up and now Ned hated him too because he was a piece of shit. He was a lonely, pathetic man. He wished he could go back in time and fix everything in his life. There was a lot he'd need to fix if he were to fix everything but by God if he was given the chance he'd take it. Because his life was miserable, and he was a miserable person and he only ever made it worse for himself._

Eventually his sobs woke up Ned, who was quite confused to see his older brother, who he'd hardly ever seen shed a tear, sitting on the floor, curled into a ball and crying. Nonetheless he reached out a hand and put it on Ted's shoulder. Ted jumped at this but when he realized it was only Ned he wrapped his arms around him in a hug and cried apologies into his shoulder. 

"I-I'm so sorry! I don't mean anything I said! Bu- but I know you were hurt, and you don't have t-to forgive me! Just know that I'm sorry and that you're nothing li-like what I said. You're not ob- obnoxious or a brat and you're definitely not what made our parents leave! Th- that was my fucking fault! You're great! And you were right! I'm anasshole and a bastard, and taking care of y-you doesn't mean I'm good in anyway!" and he repeated these things over and over. 

Ned was of course shocked by this but hugged Ted back and started trying to get him to calm down. 

"H- hey! Thank you, I forgive you! And I'm sorry too, I said a lot of bad things as well, you're not an asshole-" 

"Yes I am" 

".. Okay… maybe sometimes you're an asshole, but not always! I mean you've been pretty much nothing but nice to me my whole life- and I mean, hey! I can be obnoxious! A lot! I'm pretty sure that all the Beanies employees hate me besides Emma, I mean she doesn't like me very much either she just doesn't _hate_ me."

"But- I'm not a good person! Maybe to you I am but to everyone else? I'm the worst! And everyone hates me-" 

"Ted," Ned pulled back from the hug, his hands now firmly on Ted's shoulders "you are a dumbass if you really think no one cares about you or likes you. I mean you've known Paul since like high school? I'm pretty sure he wouldn't still talk to you everyday if you weren't his friend and he didn't like you."

"He's my coworker-" 

"That doesn't mean he _has_ to talk to you! Same goes for your other coworkers, they wouldn't talk to you if they didn't like you. And I certainly don't hate you, I care about you, yeah the things you said were upsetting but, I forgive you and I still love you, promise." 

Ted gave a small smile and wiped his eyes "thanks, love you too kid. Oh and I _definitely_ forgive you too". Ned smiled back and patted the couch "thanks, tv?" Ted nodded and sat up on the couch, the two watched TV in comfortable silence, it was on some boring nature documentary about lizards that Ned for some reason actually enjoyed. Ted didn't really pay attention to it, letting his mind float through his thoughts instead. The two ended up falling asleep on the couch. 

_Ted Spankoffski was an asshole and had had a horrible life. But just because it had been like that for so long didn't mean he couldn't change it. From now he promised he was going to be a better person, and have a better life._

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first fic, I hope you guys enjoyed it! Please let me know what you think!


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